different reactions

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2003)

***WEE SPOILERS***Can the people who like this movie please stop assuming that those of us who didn't like it were disappointed because it wasn't a "Dawn of the Dead" or standard slasher type flick. I knew going in that it was going to be no such thing. I stated in an earlier post that it is NOT a zombie movie. And I might add that I WASN'T disappointed that it was not a zombie movie. I found the premise of a virus that reduces people to pure rage far more disturbing than any run of the mill zombie. Also, please stop assuming that we didn't like it because we went in with our brains turned off, ready to be spoon-fed typical horror movie cliches and crap. Finally, stop assuming that we didn't like it because it was shot on digital video and had a "gritty, grainy" look to it rather than the standard Hollywood gloss. I have no problem with that type of "raw" looking photography.

I didn't like this movie because I just didn't like it. I don't think it made the most of its premise; it was poorly paced (which is not to say that I wanted it to be paced like a "Terminator" flick); there were HUGE plot holes, some of which I mention in my earlier post; the characters did things that made no sense (and didn't do things that would have made perfect sense); and the movies central theme about man's capacity for violence and cruelty is not especially earth-shattering. Hasn't anyone ever read or seen "Lord of the Flies"? Finally, beneath the "grit and grain" of the digital video photography there IS a typical Hollywood flick lurking--just a slower paced on. Near the end when Jim finds Selena after his wet, shirtless Rambo-like adventure around the estate they end up embracing and kissing, finally acknowledging their attraction--how cute and romantic and Hollywood. I love the fact that he lunges at her without first reassuring her that he was not infected--this, despite the fact that she is holding a machete and he has previously seen her in action with it.
If you liked this movie that's fine. I would never begrudge anyone something that provided them with enjoyment and food for thought. But we folks who DIDN'T like it weren't necessarily sitting in the theater in a brain-dead stupor waiting for a British version of a Jerry Bruckheimer or Wes Craven movie--which seems to be the prevailing assumption. You are wrong. An actively engaged brain can decide that it likes something or that it doesn't. I, along with others, did not like this movie. That doesn't make me (or them) dolts.